On Monday we were taken by boat out to Waya Island. We'd booked three nights at the Octopus Resort there (click to see web site). We'd have liked more, but it was expensive!
We had a garden bure (a bure is a traditional Fijian building, made of sticks and things). The resort is quite small, but they have lots of activities and some good facilities. We did hardly anything there. We went to the beach during the day, where we read books and snorkeled. The snorkelling was just great. The tide was quite strong, so we'd find ourselves shooting through the water over lots of nice coral and colourful fish. It was like flying!
We also met a few nice couples there (all Brits). We've not been that sociable on our travels, but it was good here to chat to people at dinner, and the people we met were friendly and intelligent. We're so looking forward to seeing friends from home again though - it can be quite dull sometimes chatting to people in hostels, as a) they don't know you; and b) all you talk about is travelling, and you end up saying the same things to everyone.
Whilst at the resort we hired a DVD (they delivered the player and a TV to our room!) and watched a movie on the beach (they had a projector and screen). So that was pretty good - we were miles from anywhere and yet still managed to see two movies! Other than that, the only "activity" we took part in was crab racing. Our crab was out in the first round.
Back to Nadi
We returned to Nadi on Thursday. We'd booked a good room at the Horizon Beach Resort, and were damn annoyed when they told us that it wasn't available when we arrived. They made some excuses about a flight being cancelled, but no flights were cancelled so it seems they'd let it to someone else (probably someone who'd wanted it for longer than two nights). We found an OK room elsewhere but were still annoyed.
We're here until 11pm on Saturday night when we fly to LA. We're quite excited about crossing the International Date Line and going back in time! However, we're not looking forward to hanging around in hot Nadi all day waiting for a night flight. Anne and I don't handle days like that very well.
Books and Movies
I read lots again on the island. No reviews as no time but here's a list:
Carl Hiassen - Basket Case
Arthur Conan Doyle - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Peter Farelly - The Comedy Writer
Phillip K Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Noam Chomsky - The Common Good
The Dvd we hired was Terminator 3. I'd heard this was a good action film, though not a worthy Terminator film. I'd not watched it on a plane when I had the chance as I thought it'd be better on DVD, so I grabbed the chance here. However, it turned out to be a crap Thai pirate DVD, which was annoying. As it was, I din't even think it was a good action film. I was never a huge fan of the Terminator films, but I didn enjoy them and this one was very far below them. There was no advance on the second film (more advanced robot from the future, Arnie has been reprogrammed to protect John Connor) and the woman terminator was just rubbish. Two stars.
On the beach we watched a film I'd seen but Anne hadn't - The Talented Mr Riply. I loved it. It's a brilliantly crafted thriller and Matt Damon is really good in it. Jude Law wasn't even as annoying as he normally is. Four and a half stars.